LOOKS

The Touareg is a large vehicle, and it’s heavy. It comes in at 189 inches long; 76 inches wide, 67 inches tall, 114 inch wheelbase, and 5,060 pounds. You get a 1,105-pound max cargo load, and 7,700 tow capacity (a solid number).

The interior is spacious in all areas, regardless of your height.
All the seating is quite comfortable; and the vehicle fits five people. No third row is offered, and I have a feeling the Atlas, once it’s released, will pull away some potential Touareg buyers due to its third row.

The Touareg is very refined inside, though not quite up to full luxury standards. That’s reserved for the Audi SUVs. The familiar, simple setup of VW’s controls carries over from smaller vehicles.

ENGINE, HORSEPOWER

The Touareg is pulled along by a 3.6-liter, V6 engine; and an 8-speed automatic transmission. The engine offers 280 horsepower, and 265 lb.-ft. of torque. It’s an all-wheel-drive vehicle, and could handle itself in some basic off-road situations.

Since the Touareg is so large and heavy, that’s evident when you try to get moving from a stop or low speed. Power does kick in and do well, but initially it’s a challenge.

Once moving, you get an excellent quality ride -- quiet, smooth and with strong handling for a large vehicle. This big boy can haul pretty good.

TECHNOLOGY, SAFETY

One area where the VW lineup isn’t a shining star is the tech side of things.

Radio controls and other basic setups work fine, but once you start to get into voice controls and other tech features, the system shows it’s a bit out of date and less responsive to what the driver wants to do. One system that worked well for me was the Navigation system, which responded well to voice commands and got me where I needed to go, even if it didn't look as pretty as some other systems in the process.

This is one area where I would recommend an update for VW in future model years -- for the Touareg and across its lineup -- as many other companies have surpassed it in the infotainment/in-car tech setup arena.

The safety side of things is covered well though, with features like adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning, emergency braking, lane change assistant and lane departure warning included.

MPG
Official fuel mileage numbers on the Touareg are 17 city/23 highway/19 combined.
These numbers are roughly in the neighborhood of other vehicles you might cross-shop with a Touareg.

PRICE, BOTTOM LINE
My test vehicle (in the middle Wolfsburg trim level) was just under $54K; base price starts just under $50K. There’s a top-level Executive trim that starts at $60K.

That’s the tricky part with the Touareg. It’s priced at or near the level of some true luxury vehicles, but it’s not quite at that level of sophistication. So will people want to take the risk of spending luxury money on what technically isn’t a luxury vehicle, even if they love the ride quality and design?

Therein lies the tricky path the Touareg has to navigate. Between its unique name and its unique place in the auto landscape, it often gets overlooked.

I would recommend testing the Touareg vs. some of the entry level luxury SUVs it’s taking on, just to see what you think. It may surprise you.

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Matt Myftiu can be found on Twitter @MattMyftiu.